Children's museum in San Fernando Valley up for $8M in public money

Facing deadlines to open the long-stalled children's museum in the north San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles officials are turning to utility ratepayers and sanitation customers to put up nearly $8 million to help open the project.

On Friday, the City Council will consider allocating $3.9 million from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and $3.6 million from the Bureau of Sanitation to help meet a year-end fundraising deadline.

In return, the Discovery Science Center Los Angeles will dedicate a third of its exhibit space to the LADWP. The exhibit, which will last for up to 30 years, will focus on energy efficiency and water conservation, and the utility's efforts to do both.

The DWP logo will be displayed on signs on the exhibit and on promotional materials.

DWP watchdogs have questioned why city leaders are spending ratepayer dollars to get a science center - formerly known as the Children's Museum of Los Angeles - up and running.

"The City Council is using DWP as a slush fund," said Jack Humphreville, who serves as the ratepayer advocate for the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council.

He called the museum a "pet political project," and added, "Ratepayers are basically funding the city obligations."

The DWP and Sanitation funds are another infusion of money for the museum, which is built but has been sitting empty behind a fence at the Hansen Dam Recreation Center. City officials need about $21.3 million to operate the exhibit program.

Earlier this year, the City Council approved an $11.8 million financing package for the center.

City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana, who helped put the financing deal together, said the partnership with the LADWP and Bureau of Sanitation on the science center is unusual for the city.

But the two agencies have overlapping goals with the Orange County-based Discovery Science Center, which will run the museum, he said.

"The goal of the exhibit is not for the DWP to promote themselves," Santana said.

"It's to promote recycling and conservation, which is part of their effort to keep rates low. It makes sense that the DWP and Bureau of Sanitation would be supporting greater awareness."

The new Children's Museum of Los Angeles was first proposed in 2000 as a $10 million public-private partnership. But the project was plagued by limited fundraising and cost overruns.

The city took ownership of the project in 2009 after the nonprofit museum filed for bankruptcy.

Earlier this year, city officials signed a deal to operate the facility with the Discovery Science Center, which frequently partners with local water agencies on exhibits.

The city is facing a financial deadline. Without securing $7.5 million from the DWP and Bureau of Sanitation by the end of the year, the center would not qualify for federal tax credits.

But critics says no independent cost analysis has been done by the DWP on the cost of the exhibit, and the funds aren't coming from monies earmarked for education. The contribution also comes as the DWP increases electricity rates, and plans to ask the City Council next year to hike water rates, critics say.

At the Board of Water and Power Commissioners meeting last week, commissioner Richard Moss voted against the proposal. "My concern is that this isn't the proper expenditure for the department at this time. To set up museum exhibits and spend $3.9 million on it doesn't sit well with me," Moss said.

Joe Adams, president of the Discovery Science Center, told the board the science center would become a regional institute, drawing children from nearby counties.

Additionally, DWP commissioners were given estimates - based on the Orange County facility - that more than 220,000 children and 600 teachers a year will be educated at the center.

"We believe a hands-on approach will change behaviors that last a lifeline," Adams told the commissioners.

Asked by one commissioner why the DWP couldn't contribute less, such as $1 million, rather than the $3.9 million figure, Adams replied:

"You could fund us less, but it doesn't help us with the new market tax credits that we are trying to achieve."

Cora Jackson-Fossett, spokesman for the Department of Public Works, which oversees the Bureau of Sanitation, said the Board of Public Works took no vote on approving the funds, and instead let the City Council and Santana's office handle the allocation.

The center, she said, would allow promotion of the agency's Clean Water and Solid Resources Programs.

"The children's museum provides an opportunity for the bureau to expand its educational outreach as well as strengthen partnerships with youth and residents to improve public health and the environment," Jackson said.

City Councilman Richard Alarcón, who represents the Hansen Dam area, and has spent the past five years seeking money for the site, expressed excitement the center could finally open.

"This is huge," he said, of getting funding from the DWP and Bureau of Sanitation. "By getting these two commitments, we're taking the first step."